


Egg Harvest

by BluSphere



Category: Splatoon
Genre: First Person, Gen, I dunno what else to tag, Original Characters - Freeform, Salmonids - Freeform, The pacing is kinda fast I feel, an ok amount of action
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-19 17:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20661002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluSphere/pseuds/BluSphere
Summary: Wind finds himself heading to Chepho-island along with his jellyfish co-pilot, Benny Ubbles, to pick up an item to deliver. But as soon as they arrive to the island, something is up, no one in sight, and the airport they arrive in was in destruction. A radio transmission calling for help gives the two pilots reason to investigate what is going on in Chepho-island.





	Egg Harvest

**Author's Note:**

> A little background on this story, I wrote it for part of my English Final a few months ago, it was supposed to be a short story that can have a minimum of four pages, but I got invested in writing this story, it ended up being 21 pages long! Since then, this "short story" has just been sitting in my drive for some time now, so after a bit of revision, I want to post it here.

Never had I realized that living in a city could be so difficult, the city of Inkopolis, that is. 

I’ve only been living here for a few weeks, and during those weeks I had no real place to live in, just going from place to place, trying to just survive. It was daunting, nothing I had expected trying to live here. Though, it was better than trying to live back at Octo Canyon, a barren underground area with little to no food and supplies, plus so many Octolings had left the area due to those circumstances and the absence of our leader. It was a liberation, to say the least, but I was on my own now, so the best idea I could come up with was to head to Inkopolis, where it was grand, the place where you can be yourself, a place where I could have a chance to begin a new leaf.

This homeless lifestyle was all I could do, I did not have much cash with me, as prices to even live in small apartments were quite high, so walking around the city would do. Scavenging food from dumpsters, trash cans, and food left by others garnered some strange looks at me, they looked at with disapproval, making me all the while quite embarrassed of the acts I’ve been committing.

During one of my scavenge fests, one particular jelly with an outfit resembling that of an aviator pilot witnesses what he says was “an uncommon and unpleasant sight to behold.” Through his generosity, this stranger takes me to his personal hangar, the hangar itself appears to be an old metal warehouse, it lacks the numerous shelves to store various items as that was cleared out for his planes. This stranger, whom I barely know, gives me a place to stay, to sleep, and to eat in. The only catch was that I had to start working for him, as he was a pilot that delivered various supplies in his airplane.

During my first few days living in the hangar, I got to know more about the jelly who took me under his wing. Benny Ubbles was his name, an experienced jelly pilot for more than a few decades, decided it would be better for him to be on his own in the later years of his career, but Benny realized back then that he would need an additional helper or even co-pilot for his long journeys of delivering goods across seas. Perhaps that’s why he took me in, Benny was not able to find anyone else that had as much experience as him, or other pilots were already too occupied to take on the job he was offering, and that’s where I come in. He had decided himself that he was gonna teach me on how to fly, seeing as I was completely jobless and had nowhere to go in life.

Benny had two planes, one was the plane where he usually makes his deliveries with, and one that was his personal plane. The biplane as he calls it, looked as if it were at the end of its life, the paint on its wings scratched away, showing the shiny metal layered underneath that it is made out of, the leather seats were torn, more so the pilot seat than the co-pilot. “Had her found in huge sale,” Benny remarks. “She’s was considered too old to operate, half of the functions to make this biplane work were out of commission! But with a little personal touch and some elbow grease, I had it up and runnin.”

Well, having this thing up and running was one way to describe it, the biplane can’t go more than a few dozen miles before starting to shut down and lose engine power. No wonder why it was so cheap to buy. I turned white during one of the practice runs when the engine stopped working, I had to carefully glide the biplane into Benny’s hangar, all the while Benny was quite calm guiding me on how to land a plane when its engine dies, great practice for emergency situations, though I felt it was way too early for those things when I started training.

One afternoon, while dozing off in my own cubicle of the hangar, Benny comes bursting in, appearing all excited, looking like he just won the worlds biggest lottery. 

“Hey, kid! We got ourselves a big one! Come on, I’ll explain on the way,” said Benny.

He grabbed me by the hand, quickly dragging me out of my personal comfort zone, today was one of those days I really wanted to just do nothing, but fate says something must happen to me, no matter the situation. As we quickly approach the landplane, Benny grabs pilot goggles, a brown aviator jacket, and leather brown boots, while putting on my new gear, he explains, 

“ This mornin I got a call from someone in Cepho-Island, says they have a new prototype engine that needs to be picked up from there and delivered here in Inkopolis, as I was the only pilot available to do it at the moment, and I’ma take you with me, so you can get some experience flying overseas.” 

I asked about was exactly was the prototype engine, but Benny doesn’t know himself, he was too excited to finally have a job that could pay quite well, seeing it was from some private company, and of course he did not remember the name of that company. I made a mental note to ask who are they and what we’re delivering when we land at Cepho-Island. Cepho-Island, I’ve heard of it, but never seen it myself. According to Benny, only about a quarter of the island is civilized, the rest of it was still unclaimed land, where miles of jungle still stand strong. 

Few private companies house their headquarters there, to be away from the general public and press, one designs one of the prototype engines that we are going to pick up, another is a soda factory, creating all kinds of unusual flavors, some I’m sure is not allowed in this land. The third one is little known, other than it's rumoured they make suits of armour, or making high tech equipment, ranging from a stealth cloak watch, to boots that can sustain great falls, thus allowing the wearer to sustain from grave injuries falling at a high distance. But that’s all rumors, none are confirmed, nor denied, they just create something of such high value that it must be kept all quiet in there. 

Cepho-Island was south-east of Inkopolis, it was an isolated island, it had no adjoining smaller lands to accompany this mostly unexplored land. Looking at the map for this place, it only has one small town, called Lanu. It would take Benny and I about thirteen hours to reach our destination, it was early morning, the sun rising from the ocean, shining its orange-red glow over the sky. 

While preparing to land, Benny radioed the watchtower at the Cepho-Island airport, “This is Ink-5-2, coming in we’re coming in for landing.” A few moments had passed, no response. We continued to fly into the airspace of the island.

“I repeat, we’re coming in, make way for us to land.” No response.

“Maybe they’re sleeping on the job,” I said.

“They can’t be, this is an airport, someone has to be operating regardless of the hour.” 

“I see a clear runway, just try landing now, our fuel tank is getting low.”

“Fine, but if they start nagging about us landing without getting confirmation of us coming in, I’ll say it was your idea,” said Benny.

Benny began to prepare to land, rolling out the landing gear, slowing down in speed, and began our slow descent to land, during this I had this strange feeling in my gut, a feeling that something is acting up, that something had not gone right, I turn my head to the window, the right wing looks fine, I turn to the left, left wing is in good condition as well. Then why I had this unnerving feeling in me? 

It must have been the lack of response from the watchtower, someone should have responded, but no voice was heard, just static, a quiet buzzing, my mind was racing through the possible reasons what could be causing this sense of fear. I snapped back to my senses as Benny gave me a heads up that the landing will be a bit bumpy, as the runway appears to be a bit beat up. I shake up and down rapidly, Benny jiggling up and down, struggling to keep the plane going straight, nearly going off the runway, just a few yards from going into the fence. Benny once more radioed in, “Hello? Is anyone there? Ink-5-2 has landed. I repeat, Ink-5-2 has landed.” No response. “Kid, it ain’t right, you sure this is Cepho-Island?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Hope to cod this ain’t Salmonid Isle we landed in, then we’ll be in big trouble.”   
This heightened my curiosity, “Why?”

Benny replied in a serious tone, “Those Salmonids ain’t civilized, they're one-hundred per-cent wacko,” his expression becomes more serious, “They’ll just destroy anything they can, buildings, equipment, even us.”

I looked at him with dread, this all my mind needed, more things to have a fear of, more enemies to worry about if they were to ever come along. Then the radio went on, a voice that of an older girl, she sounded stressed, “This is a broadcast to Cepho-Island, if anyone is still out there, please come to Lanu, I’ve held out here for some time now, not sure how long I’ll last, please, if anyone is out there, come to Lanu!” Benny and I looked at each other, wide-eyed, speechless of what we had just heard, the message had repeated again, confirming that what we heard wasn’t a one time thing, it was real alright. My gut got more unnerving, this was what my sixth sense was warning me of something I had no clue of yet I felt something for sure not right.

Benny and I got out of our plane as quickly as we can, I had not noticed how silent the runway was until now, there was no activity at all. The same can be said inside the airport building, not a single being was present. It sure felt like we were in some horror movie of sorts, waiting to be jumped by something ravenous, out for its next victim. The whole place felt unsettling, throughout the airport, tons of luggages are layed out everywhere, a few windows were smashed open, all the flights listed on the electronic board were marked as cancelled. As we walked towards the entrance, if it wasn’t obvious enough, that some sort of battle had broke out here, the doors were smashed to pieces, glass shards scattered. Benny appeared tense, he walked more slowly when seeing what had happened here. For sure were heading into a potentially hostile zone, and Lanu is where we could get answers of what or who caused this scene. Benny joked that the undead had come here and swooped everyone, but quickly apologized after he saw me tense up in fear. 

Our walk to Lanu, North-West of the airport, was trivial, though we have seen more signs of destruction. Vehicles left in the streets, some flipped over, others completely smashed in. Arriving there, the whole area looked like a war zone, we could see bright lights beaming across town, that’s where the transmission must have come from, I swore I saw a figure roaming in the distance. Walking towards lit up building, I had noticed green gunk that was all over the streets, Benny quickened his pace, just looking at it made him tense up, whatever left these trails of the thick, green ink was surely to be avoided. Benny and I stood in front of the suspected building, I hollered to see if anyone was there. Sure enough, we would see who the voice was in the transmission for help. It was a woman, for sure enough, clearly a very young adult, perhaps around the age of twenty. 

Her current attire suggests that she has been through a few skirmishes already, had a few bandages wrapped around on her left arm, and one wrapped around on her right leg. Her red jacket appeared a bit stained with that green ink Benny and I saw moments ago, her pants were a bit torn, she looked exhausted, yet a warm smile grew on her face, “So there’s still others out there then? Thank goodness.”

Benny looked at me with a questioning look, as if I had the answers to everything on this island, he replied back to the stranger, “Lady, we just arrived here to grab an important item here.” 

She looked disappointed, going on saying, “You guys shouldn't have come here, the island has been overrun, whole place has no connections to the outside world.”

Benny asks in a demanding tone, “What the heck had happened here? You playing a big game of hide and seek or something?”

The stranger looked annoyed in this remark, her friendly attitude quickly turn somewhat hostile, “Look shorty, I ain’t gonna bother with you if you’re just gonna be a jerk, help me out here or leave.” 

Seeing how this situation was turning unnecessarily aggressive, I ask, “ Hey, can you please not try and splat us? We did just got here, I apologize for my buddy here, he can act like that at times when something doesn’t make sense to him.” Benny shot me a glare, seeing how I would take sides with a stranger we had just met. I shrug.

I then looked up to the stranger, and she was gone from the balcony, then we heard an unlocking of the door in front of us, and out comes out her. “Come in,” she says, “I’ll tell you how it all went down.”    
Last night, there was an invasion, an invasion by the salmonid creatures. It was around nine o’clock at night when the attack began, Lyn, the stranger’s name, was at a cafe with a few friends when it all happened so quickly. Salmonids bursting through windows, equipped with large, blunt weapons, attempting to grab any inkling or octoling they have in their sights. Lyn bolted out of the cafe shop as quickly as she can, before she knew it her friends were separated from her. She witnessed others being snatched away. Lyn had a close face off with one of the salmonids, explains why she had bandages on her limbs. Small, pesky salmonids swarmed her, jumped on her and bit her on the arm, while another bit her on the leg. She shook them off, but now was in greater danger of being overwhelmed by either more of them or by much more bigger enemies. 

The attack lasted about two hours, before the town of Lanu went completely silent, Lyn has not seen a sign of life anywhere in her time, she was alone and stranded. She did not have any proper weapons to defend herself with, all she could find that can put a large bruise or two was a baseball bat, though the bat itself, chipped off from the punish it took hitting salmonids. Lyn suspects that not everyone was splatted, but ran off somewhere else on this island. As morning rose, she grew more desperate, and found an old radio from her room, and had it up and running, that’s when Benny and I heard that transmission. 

We sat in silence. Absorbing all of the information that had been dropped on us, Benny, for once, his expression turned sorry, “I’m sorry for your loss Lyn.” 

Lyn smiles, “Not all is loss, from what I’ve seen, everyone just ran off, they all could still be alive, just somewhere here on this island.” 

I question, “So what is it you want us to do?”   
“Help me find my friends, and the other people that live on this island.”

“That’s a heavy task, and a dangerous one, considering what you had told us about last night, we don’t really have anything to arm ourselves.” 

“Figured you might say that, follow me.”

Lyn led us to her room, and laid out on her bed before us was a few medkits, a radio, a flashlight, and a small backpack. She handed Benny the backpack, along with a medkit. She handed me a medkit and a flashlight, and said, “This flashlight as a strobing option to use, we can use it to temporarily blind some salmonids as we traverse through the island.” 

“And where are we heading? We don’t even know where they had gone to,” I say.

“But we can get an idea, you see those trails of green ink? It ain’t natural ink, its left behind by salmonids as they stroll, figure we can follow one of their trails that can lead us to our missing persons.”

Easier said than done. Walking out to the streets, it became clear this was going to be a guessing game of which trail to choose from, a collection of trails that appears to head into the jungle, or the other collection that goes off to the shore. Lyn and I opted to choose the jungle route, yet Benny chose the shore route. Lyn was certain they came from the shore itself, then went to hide in the jungle. Yet Benny insisted that there could be an underwater base right alongside the island, claiming that is how the Salmonids were able to make such a swift attack. For one, I had to remind him that us Inklings and Octolings can’t really swim, we take damage from too much water, and perish jumping into the ocean, pools, or any large form of waters. 

This problem gets even bigger, as there is no nearby respawn pad to go to, Lyn and I have to be extremely careful from now on, or its the end for either of us. Benny is practically immortal, any hits on him bounces right off, due to him being a jelly, he has a greater survival chance than the both of us. The medkit he was given seems almost useless to him, since he is so durable to most attacks. One of my first thoughts before venturing into the jungle was to arm ourselves better, get something more heavy to hit with in case we encounter our yet to be seen enemy. Lyn was the only one in our little group that had a viable defense weapon, I had just a flashlight that can possibly induce seizures, and Benny just had a backpack to swing around if he got desperate, even then he can’t do much harm. 

Heading towards the jungle just screamed danger, if the trees could talk, they would be telling us to leave before we perish. I kept reminding Lyn that Benny needed a better weapon, her response was always the same, “I know, but just keep going. We don’t have much time.”

“But we need better weapons to defend ourselves with,” I argue, “Unless you just want to have a higher chance for all of us to get splatted once we are spotted.” 

Lyn sunked her shoulders, sighed out loud, tilting her head to the left, and turned around to face me. Her expression reads annoyed, yet with a tinge of ‘you are right, but I don’t want to admit it.’

Lyn grabbed and pulled a big branch from one of the trees, handing it to me, in an annoyed tone, “There, happy now?” 

Rolling my eyes, I give the flashlight to Benny, seeing as there’s no way he can lug around a branch twice his size. Looking around, I say we have gone no more than a quarter of a mile into the jungle, the tree’s get thicker and thicker the deeper we go, as its vines become more darker shades of green. There is still much more ground to cover, yet I feel that we have not really made any progress at all. The trail of dark green ink had started to thin out, as time goes on, the ink itself slowly dissolves, making it more and more difficult to follow it through the dark jungle, its tall trees blocked out sunlight, plunging the area we walk through an endless night, with dangers looming, waiting to strike us at any moment. 

My hearts beats harder and louder, I swore I saw figures moving about in the distance with such speed, yet no noise could be heard from them. Benny looks frightened for the first time in his life, even more so than nearly crashing from high above in his planes. Lyn had unquestionably became our leader, seeing as she was living here on the island, Benny and I had just got here. Out of nowhere, Lyn asked, “Hey, I never got your names, what are they?” 

“Benny, Benny Ubbles.” 

“Nice to get to know you a little better Benny, what about you?” She gestures towards me.

“Wind,” I replied quietly.

“Huh, nice name, suits you.”

“Um, thanks,” I mumbled.

Of what I expected in this dense jungle, I did not really expect to come across an old fence, stretching to who-knows how long. It stood tall, over three times our size, atop of it was placed a warning sign that it was an electric fence. Not wanting to test whether or not if it can still shock me, I looked to the left and right, I noticed a control panel to the right, and walked towards it. The control panel itself consisted of three buttons, a dimmed out red button labeled ‘X’, a dark green button labeled ‘O’, and a mustard-yellow button which had a thunderbolt symbol on it.

Behind it stood what was a large gate, its dormant state allowed for mother-nature to wrap its vines and leafs around it, claiming back its territory that was once lost to when whoever was here for an unknown amount of time. There was a little blacked out yellow light on top of the right pole of the gate, it had a black and yellow stripe pattern to go with it, I wasn’t sure what was its purpose for being here, seeing that it was just thicker jungle beyond the gate. I question, “Hey Lyn, you think this fence still has power?”

Lyn shrugs, looking at the vine covered gate, “Beats me, never went this deep into the jungle, would not be surprised if that gate won’t open at all, looks like its been there for decades.”

“Never know ‘till ya try Wind,” says Benny. “Press that green button, it’ll probably open the gate.”

“Probably.”

Lyn already getting impatient, “Just press it already, we are losing time.”

I squint at her before breathing a heavy sigh. Guess we can’t all be too careful in an unknown land.

I press down the green button, it lights up. My eyes open wide, surprised this old thing actually works. As the gate begins to open, the once dormant yellow light turns on, it begins to flash its colors as it spins. A ringing noise emits from the light, quiet at first, but quickly rises in volume, to a point it echoes throughout the jungle. Lyn’s expression quickly turned to panic, Benny tensed up, not knowing what to do or possibly trying to think how to turn off the noise, I had to cover my ears since I was closest to the gate. We then heard a wailing noise. A cry of multiple voices that echoed back in response to the loud ringing, it was terrifying. My whole body froze at such a sound. Lyn turned pale white, screaming, “Here they come! Get ready!”

“Exactly what is coming at us?” yelled back Benny.

“A horde of salmonids. We just let every one of them know where we are.”

“Run, or fight? Run, or fight?”

“Both.”

The three of us bolt to the opening gate, I look back, and I finally see what exactly was able to take over this island, it was not from what I have seen, from what I’ve known, the frontline salmonid, referred to as Chum, is what rushing towards us.They are about the same size as I am, only slightly bigger. Their eyes are large, sporting a crazed look in their eyes, each one looking at a different direction, however, what was supposed to be dark yellow eyes were bright red, they were completely insane, and out to destroy us right here, all because of a blaring ringing sound that had to be placed on that gate.

A few Chum came rushing towards us, their fins equipped with large frying pans of all things, Benny runs to the other side, he scurries up a tree for safety, Lyn gets ready to swing her swing her bat, a few of them a little too close to me, I started bashing the Chum who got within arms length of me. A few knocked out on the spot, others kept pushing forward, Lyn yelled at me to run, but she does not realize I am keeping the oncoming horde from getting past the gate, I notice that there was a control panel on the other side we are now on, I try to make my way there, but too many Chum surround me, I felt a large metal pan smashes into my face, knocking me down to the ground, I jab my branch into the Chum that had hit me, making it stumble back, yet another came rushing towards me. It receives a crushing blow to its head, knocking it out, I look behind me, Lyn came to defend me when I got down, I get up, nodded at her in thanks, she now handles holding back the horde as long as she can, but the numbers were rising to undefendable levels. 

Strobes of light flashed behind us, Benny shined the strobing flashlight at the oncoming horde, all of them now blinded by the bright and flashing light, Lyn scored a couple more hits on the relentless crazy-eyed Chum, pushing them furthing back to the other side of the opened gate. Arriving at the control panel I pressed the red button, the gate slowly started to close and finally the loud ringing noise starts to subside, I rush over to help Lyn fend off the horde, sending them back to the other side where they belong, the rush of adrenaline was pumping through me, my hearts excitedly beating fast as I take swings at what wants me for lunch. The gate finally closes, the salmonid horde still wanting to go after us, did not rest, for their brute strength, they are not as dumb either, they began to climb the fence, disproving that it was an electric one. I look in sheer terror, expecting the worse as they will come and surround us with no time to waste, Lyn and I stand together, ready to take on them as if it was our last stand. 

Without warning, the climbing horde froze up and fell in numbers, spazzing out from pain, Lyn and I look at each other in confusion, Lyn’s confusion turned to realization, she grew a small smile. Still confused, I turn around to what she was looking at. There Benny stood, right by the control panel, with the yellow button glowing bright. Benny gave us a quick salute, we look at the now fleeing salmonids that was trying to get us, dispersing into the jungle, vanishing from our sights. I breathe a huge sigh of relief, never before have I been that relieved from nearly escaping danger, landing a dead-engine plane is one thing, but fending off an overwhelming horde face to face is another level on itself.

As the adrenaline settled down in my body, the pain in my head began to be more intense, giving me a sickening headache. Lyn sat down, breathing heavily, look up into the tree-covered sky, smiling in victory we had. The headache continued to linger, I swore that my forehead was swelling up, but Lyn, looking over any life-threatening injuries I may have received, she said I had none, but that's concerning the outside, on the inside I was not taking it well. I want to rest, to take a nap to make the pain go away, yet Lyn insists we keep going, that I can walk it off.

I groaned in annoyance, standing up slowly, as to not get light headed so the blood can flow at a nice even rate. Looking ahead, it was still just thick jungle, I felt that it could be endless as we walked on, pleading in silence that will we come across something, and not another battle to deal with. Various exotic plants stood tall among us, showing off its vibrant beauty and masterful combination of color. A giant flower caught Benny’s eye, he went ahead to check it out. I warn him, “Benny we don’t know what exactly that flower can do, most likely it’ll just poison you.” 

Benny ignores my voice, he was so drawn into the warm sunset colored that the world around him had become mute. He walks up toward it, takes one big whiff, exhales its unique scent, and falls to the ground. 

Panic I felt rushing to him, fearing the worst had occurred right in front of me, that panic quickly turns to relief, I could hear him still breathing. These moments I am bewildered such luck Benny could have at times, always seemingly close to death, yet bouncing right far away from it. Not wanting to wait for him to wake back up, I carried a now passed out Benny on my back, walking alongside Lyn, who finds humour of what just happened, smirking, giggling away. 

It was most surely the dead of night now, all light that had been trying to get through the dense leafs had ceased, darkness loomed all around us, the flashlight was our only sense of safety, as long as we had light, we tread on. It would be too late to realize that we had been walking almost aimlessly, as the trail that was before us had disappeared. 

Lyn must have had spotted something, as her audible gasp and now quickened pace suggested otherwise. Calling out, “What do you see?”

“I see a warehouse, we could take shelter there.”

Walking fast, heading into the vine-covered building, I lay Benny down onto the cold metal floor, Lyn grabs piles of leaves for me, and some for herself to sleep on. The cold air, the dark night that surrounds us, the almost dead silent warehouse brought a sense of peace to me. For once after only being on this Island for no more than a day, I felt safe. 

“Thanks,” Lyn spoke suddenly.   
“Thanks for what?”

She sighs. “Thanks for just helping me out when you had first got here, I half expected you would just leave thanks to your loud mouth friend over there.”

“And the other half?”

“You would just stay here, but just go on with business as if the world ain’t ending.”

“Heh.” Yawning, I say with increasing drowsiness, “How close you think we are?”

“Considering we found a place that has been abandoned for who-knows-how long, I say that we are getting closer,” Lyn lays down, using the leafs as a makeshift blanket. “Plus we did fought a horde of salmonids, and in the time they had reached us, their hideout has to be close.”

I yawn in agreement, turning my back to her, I wished goodnight, and hope for two things, we find other survivors that need help, and that Benny wakes up from his passed out slumber. Before I drift off into a deep slumber, I thought I heard Lyn speaking to someone, but I did not think much of it.

Rays of light pierced my eyelids, causing great annoyance from having to rise up after such a fight, my headache is back, three times worse than before. I find Lyn sitting down, digging through her medkit, looking for something. Benny is still asleep, I shake him, attempting to wake him up, but all he does is grumble and turn over. I turn him back to me, shaking him harder, “Benny. Wake up, I know you’re no longer poisoned by whatever fumes that flower spat at you.” 

The more I interact with him, the more agitated he becomes, it’s amusing. Standing up, I observe the old warehouse, vines sprawled everywhere, flowers sprouted and bloomed from them, as we began to fully awake, so was nature. Lyn grabbed my attention, she handed me some medicine, “What’s this for?” I ask.

“It’s for that headache you’ve been having, can’t stand you grabbing your head all the time.”

I say my thanks and take the medicine, should go away in a few minutes. Benny finally awakes, still groggy, but awake. Lyn was already waiting by the entrance, slowly but surely growing more impatient as Benny gets ready. 

This adventure so far has proved nothing but dangerous, yet somehow I find fun in it. That face off last night sent my adrenaline through the roof, I had so much energy within me that I needed to release as I fought my enemy. Lyn got a kick out of it too, she had this devilish smiling during the entire fight, its if she wanted to fight them, whether in the name of her friends, or just a good excuse to be a bit violent. I may never know. 

The three of us prepared to leave the warehouse, yet I was reluctant to leave it at first. It was a calm and soothing place, its green all around assured me that it was on our side, that it can provide us a place of rest and safety. Now we must leave that safe place and venture out more into the jungle, where Salmonids await to bring us down at a moment's notice. Lyn had scouted ahead earlier before Benny and I had woken up, claims to have spotted several more run down buildings, and had seen activity going on down there. 

A tinge of hope grew in Lyn’s eyes, she was ready to head in there charging and bashing every salmonid she could find, I had to remind her of what happened last night, we needed to lay low until we find the others. How many were we going to safe? How were we going to evacuate so many people at once, let alone guide them out of the jungle first? Lyn reassures me she has that planned out, I doubt it, with so many lives at stake, that plan of hers better not involve sacrificing ourselves, I’m not interested in throwing my life away for others I just met. Though morals within me say to do otherwise. 

As trees of the jungle started to clear out, we got a clearer sight of the abandoned buildings. A few of them still stood tall, though time was not so kind to them. Windows shattered, parts of buildings blown off, all signs of destruction and battle looked old, none was new. There is no marking of such a location on the map, it was an invisible ghost town, a place you would have to find yourself through any means of travel. 

For when I started to doubt that this place could suggest salmonids where hiding out here, right on cue, three squads, consisting of five per squad, scrambled out from the center of the ghost town. “Patrols,” Lyn said quietly. “They all appear from coming from around the center.”

Trying to figure out a route to take to avoid being spot proved difficult. With fifteen guarding such a small town, we may as well go in loud rather than get caught sneaking, ambushed, and captured as well. Lyn asked Benny to give the backpack, reaching inside she pulled out a small radio, it looked like it came fresh from the production line, it had a more modern look to it than the one back at Lanu. 

“I was saving this to contact relatives of mine when they had come over seas. More powerful than one back at my place, though it has a much smaller battery life,” said Lyn.

“So what ya plan to do with it? There is no one to radio here on this island,” questioned Benny.

“Not on this island, but this bad boy can go beyond the seas and reach Inkopolis.”

It still wasn’t clear if what she was going to do with it, to call some distant friend she has that can fly an entire town population back to safety. Enough time was being wasted, we had to get through this town and find if anyone one is being kept here, there was that sickening feeling in my gut again. 

I kept thinking the worst possible scenarios, we get spotted and captured, we get spotted and all prisoners we are trying to save perish, or all of us perish in the end. My gut loved to feed me those thoughts, to bring forth a sense of fear, my mind is aware of such risks I am taking, its preparing me to fight for my life, or run like a speeding bullet. Heading down a hill, we quietly crept along the grass, the sounds that echoed throughout the hollow buildings was murmurs of salmonids, the quiet ruffling of Benny’s backpack, and the sound of my own heart’s beating with fear. Any loud movement could blow our stealth, well stealth was one way to describe it, the day was shining, we could be seen from a few miles away. Coming around a corner of an old beaten road, there stood one of the squads roaming around. There they stood in the middle of it, idly swaying their heads back and forth, bored out of their minds. Lyn grabbed a small brick, chucked it far to the left, it grabbed the squads attention, going towards where the brick landed. Quickly, we walked as quietly to an abandoned store, taking cover behind the counter to avoid being seen. “Still no sign of them,” I whisper. “Every minute that passes, we have a higher risk of being spotted here.” 

Lyn shoots up, “I hear voices.” 

Looking back, Lyn was now focused on a red door in the back in the store, slowly creeping to it, she opened it, an audible gasp was heard. In this small room was several of what to be assumed of the few missing persons we have been looking for. Two Inklings and one Octoling, all female, stood together, in a stance ready to fight, slowly releasing tension as they realized we were not the enemy. One of the taller Inklings walked towards us, “You didn’t escape?”

I was a little confused, “What?”

Lyn gestured towards us, “These two arrived here not too long ago, I have been stuck here since the invasion, now these two are along for the ride.”

The stranger looked at her companions that was behind her, “Everyone else managed to break off from getting captured, but we got the worst of it, completely surrounded by Salmonids, it was chaos.” 

“So where is everyone then?”

“They all escaped on boats, they just could not wait for us to get there, it got too heated.”

The Octoling spoke quietly, “We had to retreat back, I thought heading into the jungle would help us hide until the Salmonids leave, but that plan backfired.”

The tall one’s expression turned grim, “Now we are just stuck here, no weapons, supplies running out, it is not too long until either we die or get caught by those damn Salmonids.”

Lyn took out her small radio, “I got a plan. This radio will get us-”

“ You know that there is no signal here, right? It’s useless.”

“If you let me speak, it can reach out to the mainland, it has its own signal.”

“Care to explain that to me?”

“No.”

The tall one sighed, “I’m not in the mood to argue, my group will follow your group until we get out of this wretched place, alright?”

Lyn had agreed, I myself did not like the idea of joining these people, as the tall one seems to be the leader, and she is possibly grumpy, stressed, annoyed, or all of the above. Now a group of six cephalopods, peeking out to see if there were any patrol squads nearby. No sound. Walking out one by one, we traversed through the old abandoned streets to see where to go now, now I that I think of it, “Lyn, we could head back to the airport, we got a plane back there, all of us could-” 

“Sorry kid but if you forgot already we don’t have that much fuel left,” quickly spoke Benny.

“Then how we are going to get off this island?”   
“By radio, duh,” said Lyn. “Trying to look for a place to get on high ground, I can radio for someone to come rescue us.”

“We are about thirteen hours away from Inkopolis, by the time someone gets to us, we’ll all be goners,” argued Benny.

“Last night I tested my radio to see if anyone would pick up, sure enough, someone on the other end picked up, I told them all of what happened so far, the rescue team is on standby to be called in to pick us up by helicopter.”    
“Why don’t you tell us these things?”

“I wanted to make sure it was not going to be called off to rescue us, but so far they have yet to back out.”

The tall one mumbles, “That helicopter is going to attract every single Salmonid within a ten mile radius to us, we are going to die before we get out.”

“That’s why I wanted to get to a higher place, so we can have an easier time defending ourselves.”

“This plan of yours better work, I’ll haunt you in the afterlife if it all goes south.”

Not much buildings could provide the higher ground we needed, parts of building were crumbled, it could allow salmonids to climb up in hordes and run us over, others just looked unstable. For each building that was passed by, my hopes for getting rescued dwindled, the cons outweigh the pros. Benny started mumbling about getting tired, moping along with us, he did not ask for any of this, if he knew better we should have just picked up some fuel and head straight back home. 

The recently joined group seemed to went through thick and thin, the tall inkling had a few scratches all over her, her shorter companion proved no better, she was limping with us, grunting in constant pain, she must have been injured probably yesterday. The Octoling that accompanied the two looked battle-scarred, her arm had a few large teeth marks, her legs were scratched up, had bandages around her stomach, presumably where the worst of her injures lie. The tall one looked worried about her injuries. Compared to how Lyn, Benny and I are holding up, we are lucky to not even suffer a near fatal injury like they have, somehow I felt guilty.

A loud noise was heard, almost that of a yell, I snap to the direction of the noise, my gut sank, one of the squads spotted us, heading straight towards us. The tall one picked up her Octoling friend, and grabbed the short one’s hand, urging her to run. Lyn, Benny and I soon followed. I could hear the Salmonids disgruntled noises as they chase us, angry that we are still alive. Adrenaline starting to shoot through me again, running faster and faster. The streets were no longer safe, soon the other squads would come in, and attack us from all sides, we took a detour into an old apartment building a few stories high. 

Inside of the rooms as we climbed up the stairs, was covered in dust, the apartment was nearly untouched for decades, until the barging in of six cephalopods came in to escape crazed salmonids bent on ending our lives. I kicked a few of them going up, sending a few Salmonids tumbling down, knocking over their other squadmates. 

Lyn pulled out her radio, yelling, “Hey, come in, this is Lyn from hours earlier, we need that chopper in now!”

A static voice replies, “Alright, we are on our way, prepare to be evacuated, ETA five minutes, over and out.”

“This is gonna get bad real fast,” said the tall one.

Reaching the rooftop, I closed the door, hoping that it would just stay that way. Benny placed the backpack down, taking a quick breather before the real fight would soon come. Taking my stance to fight the salmonids trying to break down the door, the short one came up to me, quickly speaking, “I know I haven’t said much, and I barely know you or your group in general, but thanks for this, and I apologize if my grumpy friend over there is so worked up.” Said tall grumpy one was placing down the Octoling. “She's had a long day.”

“Well, uh, you’re welcome, glad to have helped.”

Realizing now, only three of us out the six here had viable weapons, I would count Benny too, but his flashlight is near useless in the daylight. I broke my large branch into two, handed to the tall one that was ready to fight with her own fists, all I got was a quiet thanks before I took position to defend this rooftop. An all too familiar cry of a horde boomed from the jungle, echoing into the entire ghost town. All of us tensed up, the tall one stood close by her resting friend, the short one stood by us, having a small frying pan she picked up on our way up the rooftop. Soon enough noises can be heard, all loudly grunting and screaming that they are coming, they will have no mercy on us. 

Lyn looked over below, then she quickly stepped back, stumbling a bit, in panic, “They are climbing up the sides!”

Without hesitation, I started swinging at the heads of the salmonids that were climbing up, knocking them back to the ground, I saw that they had piled up on the bottom in a messy pyramid shaped form, that explains how they are climbing up so quickly. The door was knocked down, Lyn rushed there to hold of the oncoming salmonids, she took an easier job than the rest of have, to hold off from every side of the rooftop as the horde climbs on. I saw a few creeping up behind the Octoling, I called out to warn her, but then the tall one jumped in and bashed the heads of the sneaking Salmonids, knocking them out cold, and plunging them to the ground. The tall one had a death stare, she really cared for her injured friend, she did not want anything to go near her. Benny and the short inkling stood together back to back, kicking down salmonids coming up their way. 

“Where is that damn chopper? We are seafood if they don’t come now,” yelled the tall one.

None of us could respond, the horde was increasing in numbers, there was no time for talk now. I was too focused in one area, as from my left a salmonid jumped out and hit me with his large pan, knocking me down, before I know it, several more got up to the rooftop, readying their various heavy blunt weapons on me. Bracing for imminent doom, I hear cries of pain, I look up, to my surprise the tall one came over and knocked them all off the rooftop, “Get up, no time for napping.”

Picking up my branch I dropped, I continued on bashing salmonids, left and right, some jumping towards us, others missing and falling off to the other side. Lyn started to lose the battle against the salmonids trying to enter through the open door frame, I rush over there to help, but I was pulled back without warning, I turned to see that the tall one giving me a glare, “Stay with her, don’t let those slimy monsters get near her.” She pointed to the Octoling that was almost going in and out of consciousness, her wounds started to take a toll on her. 

Now defending the Octoling, I look to see if Lyn was still holding up, she was now fighting alongside the tall one. What made me look in awe was the fact the tall one was fighting with her fists, she gave her branch to the short one, who was now wacking away at the horde that was climbing up on the sides, dual wielding a branch and a pan.

So far, all the sounds I have heard proved later to be near-death experiences, but never so I have been relieved to hear the distant sounds of a chopper coming in. However this just made the horde go mad. Their aggression increased tenfold. Grunts and cries became snarls and roars. It was becoming a living nightmare, for every Salmonid I bash away, each next one was more pissed off than before. One after another, they just don’t cod-damn stop. They don’t stop until we all perish right here on this rooftop. 

I swore I heard the Octoling gasped, as she pointed to the sky, lo and behold, a helicopter is flying to us. Benny stretches and waves his arms to get the attention of the helicopter, I’m sure they have already spotted us by now, but better safe than sorry to make sure they see us. The tall one runs over to her Octoling friend to pick her up, “The chopper is here, move!”

As the helicopter descends to get as close as possible to the rooftop, the pilot calls out to us, “Everyone get on, the zone is getting hot.”

It’s now or never. I grab Benny and Lyn by their hands, and bolt to the helicopter. It was already taking damage from the constant hits from the Salmonids. The tall one, the short one, and the injured Octoling are already getting aboard the hovering helicopter. I felt a sudden heavy weight pulling down on my hands, Lyn had collapsed, “Benny, go now! I got her.”

Looking back the horde was already starting to swarm the rooftop, I hoisted Lyn up, carrying her in my arms, I had no time to try and fend off, I just had to run. Lyn was all bruised up, she must have took too much damage fending off the rooftop door entrance for too long. Sadness came over me, I should have helped her out and let the short one defend the Octoling earlier, next time, if there is a next time, I’ll defend her better. I hopped on the helicopter, nearly escaping the clutches of Salmonids, we started to ascend into the air. I look down to see a massive horde below us, all uselessly trying to reach us as we fly away. 

All of my muscles in my body relaxed. It happened so fast, yet it's all over, we are all together still, though some in worse conditions than others, Lyn and that Octoling need intensive care. A heavy sleepiness overcomes me, I sit down, seeing the ground below go from wild jungles to the sandy beaches, then into the ocean. Benny completely passed out, alongside him was the short one taking a nap as well, seems that everyone had the same idea. All except for the tall one, who was standing by the Octoling. She then got up, looked at me, and spoke, “I want to thank you and your group for saving our hinds back there, we would have not lasted a day longer on that island.” 

“Thank you for helping my friend when she needed help the most, that was pretty cool you just went in fists only.”

The tall one smirked, “Heh, I tend to prefer hand to hand fights, I work quicker that way.”

“What’ll you think will happen to that island?”

“Beats me, I could care less for it now, I want to forget about it as soon as possible.”

“I second that.”

“Attention everyone, we’re gonna land on the ship, hold on,” announces the pilot.

As we land, I could see the island in the distance, there was huge smoke rising from a few places, it really had gotten taken over, Cepho-Island was no more. Lyn was still passed out, now being carried by a medical crew examining her, more attention was brought to the Octoling, the tall one standing right by her, refusing to leave her side. Now that I think of it, I never knew those three girls names, perhaps another time when the circumstances aren’t so bad. Benny and the short one were chatting away, both explaining their stories of what they had seen back at the island.

Next time I have a bad gut feeling, I’ll listen to it, and avoid any disasters possible, I had nearly met my demise twice, running through head on to try and save others. Though, I suppose it was a good thing to do in the end. Lyn, Benny, and I saved three lives, a feat I’ll remember for the rest of my days. I have to make a note to myself to bring a backup weapon just in case something of this caliber ever happens again, that island isn’t really too far off of Inkopolis, it raises concerns of what the Salmonids plan to do next.

Until then, I stand looking across the ocean, seeing the smoking island shrinking into the horizon, falling to an invasion where the inhabitants had no chance of fighting. One thing is for sure, if those Salmonids want to try and take over Inkopolis, they got another thing coming. 


End file.
